MSGID: 1:317/3 6273533c   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    California's 2020 wildfire season    
    Report summarizes record-breaking fire year and calls for shift in   
   strategy    
      
     Date:   
         May 4, 2022   
     Source:   
         University of California - Davis   
     Summary:   
         A new study summarizing the 2020 California wildfire year said just   
         over 9,900 wildfires burned 4.3 million acres in 2020. That's twice   
         the previous record but only average compared to burn rates before   
         Euro- American settlement. Fire severity is the far greater concern.   
      
      
      
   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   Just over 9,900 wildfires burned about 4.3 million acres in 2020. That's   
   more than twice the previous record of acres burned in California. Yet   
   it is about average compared to burn rates likely experienced before   
   Euro-American settlement, according to a study from the University of   
   California, Davis, that summarizes the 2020 fire season and examines   
   its drivers.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   The study, published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography,   
   said 2020 was the first year in recorded history that burned area in   
   California came close to rates seen before the 1800s, when an estimated   
   3-4 million acres burned in an average year.   
      
   Increased fire severity is the far greater concern, the study said. The   
   authors advise that resource and fire managers working in forests shift   
   their emphasis from reducing burned area to reducing fire severity and   
   fire damage to people and property, and restoring key ecosystem functions   
   after fire.   
      
   "Although burned area in 2020 was very high, it is not unprecedented if   
   you take the longer view," said lead author Hugh Safford, a forest and   
   fire ecologist with the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science   
   and Policy and chief scientist at Vibrant Planet, an environmental   
   public benefits corporation. "The problem is that much of the burning   
   we are seeing now is not restorative but destructive. The need to shift   
   management goals is key, as is understanding the very important role   
   that fuels play in driving fire severity."  A new measure of success   
   California is the most fire-prone state in the United States. For the   
   past century the key measure of success among forest managers has been   
   decreased burned area, but that needs to change, according to the study.   
      
      
      
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   Reducing burned area remains an important goal in ecosystems like   
   chaparral and sagebrush in coastal, lowland and eastern California. In   
   these places, frequent fires lead to ecosystem degradation and threaten   
   human safety.   
      
   But over the past 40 years, the increases in burned area in California   
   occurred almost entirely in central and northern California forests and   
   woodlands rather than in southern California chaparral, which used to be   
   the poster child for the California "fire problem." This is even though   
   climate warming has been more extreme in southern California.   
      
   These forests experienced a naturally high frequency of fire before fire   
   exclusion policies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries restricted   
   burns, including from lightning ignitions and Native American cultural   
   burning. Fire exclusion led to a huge increase in forest density and   
   fuels, driving an explosion in large, destructive fires.   
      
   "In these ecosystems, reducing burned area is a cause of the current   
   catastrophic trends, not a solution to them," the authors said.   
      
   Key 2020 wildfire statistics The authors summarized 2020's burning   
   conditions, burned area and fire sizes, fire weather, fuel moisture,   
   fatalities, property damage, suppression cost data, vegetation types,   
   fire history and other variables from public data sources.   
      
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   They found that fires in 2020 followed an accelerating, decadeslong   
   trend of increased burn area, severity, size and costs to society and   
   the economy.   
      
   The fires killed 33 people in 2020 with overall economic losses of more   
   than $19 billion and firefighting costs approaching $2.1 billion. The   
   years 2020 and 2021 together burned more area than the previous seven   
   years combined, and only slightly less than the total burned between   
   1980 and 1999.   
      
   Between 2015 and 2020, total insured economic losses were more than $50   
   billion, and over 50,000 structures -- mostly homes -- were destroyed.   
      
   Air quality and wildfires More than half of Californians experienced   
   unhealthy, and sometimes hazardous, air quality index levels for a month   
   or more in 2020, the study reports. The state's worst five days of air   
   pollution in history all occurred in 2020, according to CalFire.   
      
   Wildfire-driven air quality in August and September likely also caused   
   1,200 to 3,000 "excess" deaths among people age 65 or older.   
      
   The fires emitted nearly 112 million metric tons of carbon and 1.2 million   
   tons of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). That's 120 times more fine   
   particulate matter than California's vehicles produced in the same year.   
      
   'We can do something about this' The study also assessed what drove fire   
   severity patterns in 2020. Fire severity is a measure of the impact of   
   burning on an ecosystem, measured in this study by losses in vegetation   
   biomass.   
      
   Overall, fire severity was best explained by fuel load-related variables,   
   with dryness and wind also playing key roles. Longer-term drought --   
   including its effects on tree mortality before 2020 -- was less important   
   overall except in a handful of fires.   
      
   Nearly 60% of the fires were caused by humans through arson, vehicles,   
   power lines, campfires or unknown causes, while lightning sparked the   
   rest. However, the lightning-sparked fires burned more than five times   
   the area burned by human-caused fires.   
      
   "Extreme weather conditions are certainly playing a role, but climate   
   change isn't driving all the change we're seeing," said Safford. "Fuel   
   loads played a major role in driving fire severity patterns in   
   forested landscapes in 2020, like in other years. High fuel loads   
   are due mostly to human management decisions over the last century or   
   more, and we can do something about this issue."  The authors said a   
   recent agreement between the state and U.S. Forest Service that seeks   
   to increase fuel-reduction activities is promising, as is the recent   
   California Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan. But, they add,   
   "there is no time to lose."  Study co-authors include Alison Paulson   
   of UC Davis and the USDA Forest Service, Zachary Steel of UC Berkeley,   
   and Derek Young and Rebecca Wayman of UC Davis.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by   
   University_of_California_-_Davis. Original written by Kat Kerlin. Note:   
   Content may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Hugh D. Safford, Alison K. Paulson, Zachary L. Steel, Derek   
      J. N. Young,   
         Rebecca B. Wayman, Morgan Varner. The 2020 California fire season:   
         A year like no other, a return to the past or a harbinger   
         of the future? Global Ecology and Biogeography, 2022; DOI:   
         10.1111/geb.13498   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220504144517.htm   
      
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